Archive for the ‘anti Zionism’ Category

In January, four longtime Israel bashers were invited to the University of California, Los Angeles, to analyze the human rights conditions in Gaza, and used the stage to attack the legitimacy of Zionism and its vision of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

They criminalized Israel’s existence, distorted its motives and maligned its character, its birth, even its conception. At one point, the excited audience reportedly chanted “Zionism is Nazism” and worse.

Jewish leaders condemned this hate-fest as a dangerous invitation to anti-Semitic hysteria. The organizers, some of them Jewish, took refuge in “academic freedom” and the argument that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.

I fully support this mantra, not because it exonerates anti-Zionists from charges of anti-Semitism but because the distinction helps us focus attention on the discriminatory, immoral and more dangerous character of anti-Zionism.

Anti-Zionism rejects the very notion that Jews are a nation – a collective bonded by a common history – and, accordingly, denies Jews the right to self-determination in their historical birthplace. It seeks the dismantling of the Jewish nation-state: Israel.

Anti-Zionism earns its discriminatory character by denying the Jewish people what it grants to other historically bonded collectives (e.g., French, Spanish, Palestinians): namely, the right to nationhood, self-determination and legitimate coexistence with other indigenous claimants.

Anti-Semitism rejects Jews as equal members of the human race; anti-Zionism rejects Israel as an equal member in the family of nations.

Are Jews a nation? Some philosophers would argue Jews are a nation first and religion second. Indeed, the narrative of Exodus and the vision of the impending journey to the land of Canaan were etched in the minds of the Jewish people before they received the Torah at Mount Sinai. But philosophy aside, the unshaken conviction in their eventual repatriation to the birthplace of their history has been the engine behind Jewish endurance and hopes throughout their turbulent journey that started with the Roman expulsion in A.D. 70.

More important, shared history, not religion, is today the primary uniting force behind the secular, multiethnic society of Israel. The majority of its members do not practice religious laws and do not believe in divine supervision or the afterlife. The same applies to American Jewry, which is likewise largely secular. Identification with a common historical ethos, culminating in the re-establishment of the state of Israel, is the central bond of Jewish collectivity in America.

There are, of course, Jews who are non-Zionists and even anti-Zionists. There are also Jews who find it difficult to defend their identity against the growing viciousness of anti-Israel propaganda.

But these are marginal minorities at best; the vital tissues of Jewish identity today feed on Jewish history and its natural derivatives – the state of Israel, its struggle for survival, its cultural and scientific achievements and its relentless drive for peace.

Given this understanding of Jewish nationhood, anti-Zionism is in many ways more dangerous than anti-Semitism.

First, anti-Zionism targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely, the Jewish population of Israel, whose physical safety and personal dignity depend crucially on maintaining Israel’s sovereignty. Put bluntly, the anti-Zionist plan to do away with Israel condemns 5.5 million human beings, mostly refugees or children of refugees, to eternal defenselessness in a region where genocidal designs are not uncommon.

Second, modern society has developed antibodies against anti-Semitism but not against anti-Zionism. Today, anti-Semitic stereotypes evoke revulsion in most people of conscience, while anti-Zionist rhetoric has become a mark of academic sophistication and social acceptance in certain extreme yet vocal circles of U.S. academia and media elite. Anti-Zionism disguises itself in the cloak of political debate, exempt from sensitivities and rules of civility that govern inter-religious discourse, to attack the most cherished symbol of Jewish identity.

Finally, anti-Zionist rhetoric is a stab in the back to the Israeli peace camp, which overwhelmingly stands for a two-state solution. It also gives credence to enemies of coexistence who claim that the eventual elimination of Israel is the hidden agenda of every Palestinian.

It is anti-Zionism, then, not anti-Semitism, that poses a more dangerous threat to lives, historical justice and the prospects of peace in the Middle East.

Judea Pearl is a professor at UCLA and the president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation. This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

German Court: Anti-Zionism May Be Anti-Semitism – Jewish World …”To give someone carte blanche for anti-Semitism because of Jewish origin or meritorious ancestors is racism,” continued the statement. …

David Matas, famed human rights lawyer from Canada, in his excellent book Aftershock, written in 2002, reviewed the attacks on Jews and Israel throughout the world, and asked: How could this happen sixty years after the Holocaust? He answers:

“The root cause of the revival of antisemitism is anti-Zionism. Zionism is the expression of the right to self determination of the Jewish people. Anti-Zionism, by definition, denies and rejects this right by denying the right to a state by the Jewish people. Anti-Zionism is a form of racism. It is the specific denial to the Jewish people of the basic right to which all people of the world are entitled.

“Israel exists because of the Holocaust, because of anti-Semitism and as a place of refuge for Jews fleeing persecution, for the cultural survival of the Jewish people and their right to self-determination, because of the ties of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, and because of international acceptance and recognition. The logic of anti-Zionism requires attacking each and every one of these reasons for the existence of Israel.”

LaVon Mercer

The man at right is LaVon Mercer, formerly a star player on Israel’s
championship Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball team, Israeli citizen, and former soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. LaVon
is an orphan who came up the hard way.

LaVon, now a basketball coach at Atlanta’s Spellman College, never
misses an opportunity to speak out for his second country. His height is variously given as 6’8" or 6’11". He is
"Israeli’s biggest ambassador."

Ismail Khaldi is Israel’s Consul in San Francisco. Ismail is a Bedouin Arab. He says:

Two years ago, a few proud Bedouin Israeli citizens like asked: what is our position and status in the State of Israel
in the midst of its
current situation? After all, Bedouin are part of Israel’s success story. During current times, when Israel is being
attacked and accused of
being a racist state, an ‘aggressor and an oppressor’, we decided that the smallest and probably most effective thing we
could do is to
spread our story as part of Israeli society.

Let’s put it this way, there is as much “common ground” between these two
separate anti-Zionism, as any “bond” a Nazi can have with a Jew.

When the famous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. clarified that anti-Zionism is
racism, he was as right on target as the rest of his famous lines on racism as a
whole.

The cynical use by racist anti-Zionists of ultra-religious-Jewish
anti-Zionism is one of the most misleading treacherous campaign they conduct,
let’s just say that ones that call for a new Holocaust, such as Iranian leader :
M. Ahmadinejad (2006), would be willing to let a few orthodox Jews to survive in
“exchange” for not being seeing as the Hitler he is, in his open plan to wipe
off all of Israel.

Anti-Jewism’s modern name is Anti-Zionism

While Zionism is nothing more than the right of a nation to come back to
it’s historic homeland (and providing refuge also for Jews facing persecution,
to go to their only exclusive country), it has been demonized by both, Islamic
militants & Nazis, to justify their war on the Jews only to wage their
hateful facsist campaign under a more convenient – thus deceiving – banner of
‘Anti-Zionism’, since being openly anti-Jews is not popular any more, the
wrapping of this evil under a “political’ issue might help them disguise their
hidden devious war on all Jews.

All criticism on how it handles terrorists that are bend on genocide on
Israelis, have been used to bash ‘Zionism’, still, it can never change the
original simple basic human idea.

The unique anti-Zionism by the pious

However, anti-Zionism that of Ultra Orthodox Jews, is more of a pure
ideological side, these highly religious highly pacific Talmudic Jews have a
problem with ‘taking manners in their own hands’, oppose any aggression and
provocation, while the vocal orthodox against Zionism are active publicly and
considered fevered anti-Zionists, most orthodox Jews in Israel are more of a
form of passive non-Zionists, as they don’t even serve in Israel’s IDF army, one
of the major reasons is, not to engage in ANY violence, they say it DOES effect
you even if you are only trying to defend yourself.

For the record, the Zionists that were involved in re-establishing the
‘Jewish-State’ in 1948 as well as prior actions towards it, were almost all
secular-Zionists, the ultra religious anti-Zionist Jews tried to appease the
Arabs.

It would be more fare to say that Zionism (& it’s argument) is based
more on history and the Bible, whereas Jewish anti-Zionism is based on the
Talmud interpretation of it.

Whichever way you see it, this dispute in ideology has nothing to
do – of course – with haters’ campaign masked under an ‘anti-Zionism’
rope.

The bigotry of anti
Israel

Facts & Causes

The obvious, or the ‘should be obvious’

This is not really all about the Arab Muslim world, who’s anti
Israel feeling and action is motivated (not by any feeling to help
fellow Arab Muslims, fact is, the Arab “Palestinians” are persecuted all
throughout the Arab world) by Arab racism (just as the Kurds,
Maronites, Sudanese and other non Arabs suffer from the global
Arabization) & Islamofascism or Islamic-Fascism, the evil ideology
as Tony Blair calls it (just as non Muslims in general, dhimmi or
kuffars, non-believers suffer, global wide, take it straight from the horse’s
mouth, the Iranian fanatical Islamic leader Ahmadinejad’s call for genocide &
ethnic cleansing on Israel that though has no regional or territorial disputes
with Iran of course, “doesn’t belong on ‘Muslim land’, in the all Muslim middle
east”, this anti-Israel facsism still infects most moderate Muslim countries
that blindly refuse entry to anyone with an Israeli passport).

Nor is it about the few neo/old Nazis that hate all Jews(even those that tell you they hate “only
Zionists”).

But this is about the bigotry of
anti-Israel infected in the mainstream.

Jumping to conclusion before knowing the facts

This happens on a regular basis, but a few examples might serve as
highlights if you wish:

The rush into harsh words by UN’s Secretary general Kofi Annan
(before he semi-apologized for it) when some UN officials got hurt in the
cross fire between Huzbullah terrorists and Israeli defense forces (Hezbullah
initiated war and invasion 2006), even after realizing that the UN post was used
by the Huzbullah as a tool.

The overwhelming bashing Israel in Arabs’ deaths, like the very icon the
“Palestinian” propaganda machine used, as in the Arab kid Muhammad al-Dura
(2002), which we all know by now, was nothing more than staged by Arabs
themselves, and it was Arab shooters that killed that boy.

The rushing media in “blaming Israel” for the death of an Arab family on
Gaza beach (2006), again Israel promised/asked to wait until a full
investigation is complete, that concluded it was the “Palestinian” Hamas’ led
mines that brought about that incident.

No matter how many times the media sees the transparency in the fake images
produced and invented by the ‘Palestinians’, “PALLYWOOD” (http://seconddraft.org), it seems to
“forget”, each time a new case appears.

Demanding from Israel the victim of terror more than from the
perpetrator

The words an anti-Israel ‘activist’ told me, resonates throughout this
conflict: “I can’t expect from the Arabs any better, but Israel/ should know
better!”.

In other words, it is part of demanding from the west ever more then from
the Islamic world, when it comes to morality.

The only problem is that it is not presented in this open way, it is
presented as Israel is the “bad” guy, period.

As opposed to endless condemnations by the UN on Israel’s self defense,
When was the last time the UN has condemned the very Arab “Palestinian” crimes
on their own people that they try to pin on Israel, like:

Using it’s kids as human shields (which Huzbullah, in 2006, picked up very
quickly, copied them in their war on Israeli civilians, using Arab civilians)
and as human bombs?

Legitimizing and even glorifying mass murder and genocide as a ‘good holy
act’ in their mainstream and official media?

The Lie of “natives” is bought

How many have fallen prey to the powerful sell of “indigenous” Arabs in the
land of the Judea?

The picture of an all out ‘Arabs in the middle east’, is one of the
misconception misleading clarity of history, never forget that most today’s
‘Palestinians’ have no more than 3 generations “history” in this ancient land of
the Jews.

Absolutely no one has disputed the fact of Arab immigration that saw an
upsurge with Zionists’ immigration (the latter only, limited by the British) in
the late 1800.

The fact that the most “Palestinian” – icon of all time: Yasser Arafat
was an Egyptian born fighting for “his homeland” in Israel… is so
classical.

By the same token, it is not well known the fact that over 50% Israeli
Jews are of children of indigenous Jews in the middle east (http://jimena.org) .

The Global Goliath Islamo Arab power

The very fact that there was so much talk and selecting/picking on one lobby
out of so many different types and different interests – lobbies that operate in
Washington but the utter silence on the enormous Islamo Arab lobby that
basically occupies, threatens, incorporating so many in their anti-Israel racist
boycott, uses oil as a weapon and dictates the international arena, including
the UN, shows you just how great of bully they are.

So is the fear of European nations for unrest by the Arab Muslim
(immigrant) population, (terrorism works!) that effects or rather impairs their
stand on the middle east conflict.

The wrong picture of seeing Israel as the “aggressor” and the
‘Palestinian Arabs’ as the “underdog”

Question # 1:

Who has more power, the cynical Arab adult shooting behind a kid’s back,
behind a woman’s squirt, or the Israeli humane soldier facing a terrible
dilemma?

Question # 2

When you see the biased media showing a tank vs. kid, A) do you ever
stop and think what the message is behind it? B) Does this suggest
that the Israeli soldier is really after an unarmed person? C) Did you ever
stop to think that the very fact that you can see the Israeli soldier but you
can NOT see the Arab terrorist makes the invisible much more of a menace?

Nothing more like the situation in Iraq (2003-2007)
demonstrates that you might have the most powerful army in the world, you are
weaker (in many ways) than the invisible coward terrorists hiding among
civilians that has no rules of basic regards for ANY human lives.

Take for example the admission of anti Israel Arabist: Jimmy Carter that
(on December , 2006 – CNN) has admitted that Israel is a great democracy with
freedom and equal rights for all, and that (in an interview to Larry King he
said that) he used provocative words like “apartheid” (only) in order to provoke
discussion.

All those bombastic empty words like “racism’ or “apartheid” the
anti-Israel Arab racist propaganda machine is selling, has of course no support
in facts on the ground, there is nothing “racist” about fighting terrorists for
being terrorists, there is nothing “apartheid”, especially that they are the
same Arab race and group, Israeli Arabs and “Palestinian” Arabs, with different
identification cards that has nothing but security implications.

Since when is concern for security considered “racism”?

The same “Judenrein – Palestine” that is trying to ethnic cleanse all Jews,
that does not even permit any Jew to live in their ‘territories’, is lecturing
multi-racial, multi-religion, multi-color Israel, that has all colors and
races from the darkest black to the whitest blond, that has a whopping
20-25% Arabs in it’s population, with equal rights and representations in high
offices (and even more rights than Jews, giving the fact that Israeli Jews
are obligated to serve in the army whereas Israeli Arabs are not).

The racism behind “questioning” Israel’s right to
exist

Can you name one other country that is subject to even a question of
being ‘recognized’?

Why do you think it is?

If you want to talk about history as a supposed reason, 1) Even if you are
a naiive student of ‘Palestinian’ propaganda in revising history, You don’t see
anyone denying the unmistakenly settlers like most European, or American or
Australians right to exist. 2) speaking even about history, for the record:
No matter on which political side you are on, you have no right to deny rights
of a nation to exist, no one can ever erase Jews’ history to the land of Israel,
at the same breath no one can claim that there was ever a sovereign
Arab-Muslim “Palestine”, in fact, the same nazis or Jew-haters that used to tell
the Jews in Europe: ‘Go back where you came from, go to Israel-Palestine’,
the ones continue the evil torch of Nazism today ironically deny the Jews
coming back to their original roots-origin.

The dehumanization of Israeli victims

Seeing Israel as nothing but a “tank”, is another racist element coming
through, in brushing off Israeli victims as a “side details” at best.

When was the last time the BBC (for example) has shown any drama pictures
of injured Israeli kids at a fraction of the time, passion dedicated to any Arab
kid that was killed (usually) because of an Arab adult’s fault?

Can you remember reporters of the mainstream media visiting Israeli
hospitals as much as you can remember them strolling down Arab ones? And Why
not?

Numbers are not the reason, percentage wise you will see time and time
again, Israel loses by far in media’s favoritism.

Ford Foundation Will Pay for Parley Of Anti-Israel Scholars at Lake Como – February 7, … terrorism or bigotry, or calls for the destruction of any state. …http://www.nysun.com/article/27123

Anti-semitism on campus by Anna Bolman at Over A Teacup, Campus newspapers have become a hotbed of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel … they cannot stop certain expressions of hate and bigotry, they condemn them. …http://www.overateacup.com/abolman1.html

Israel must do a better job in making its case and supporters of Israel must become more vocal. I believe that the fight against anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic bigotry is one of the most important human rights issues of the 21st century.http://info.jpost.com/C004/QandA/qa.dershowitz.html

UN World Conference Against RacismBut the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist campaign is not uninformed bigotry, it is conscious politics. …Further, this fact of world politics creates altogether …http://www.adl.org/durban/adl_quotes.asp

Schooled in Hate: Anti-Semitism on CampusIn another example of the former acceptability of anti-Zionism, … The article is a shameful example of bigotry and hatred which has no place in civilized …http://www.adl.org/Sih/SIH-antizionism.asp

“Advocates for Israel try to silence critics by labeling them anti-Semitic.”

Fact

Criticizing Israel does not necessarily make someone anti-Semitic. The determining factor is the intent of the commentator. Legitimate critics accept Israel’s right to exist, whereas anti-Semites do not. Anti-Semites use double standards when they criticize Israel, for example, denying Israelis the right to pursue their legitimate claims while encouraging the Palestinians to do so. Anti-Semites deny Israel the right to defend itself, and ignore Jewish victims, while blaming Israel for pursuing their murderers. Anti-Semites rarely, if ever, make positive statements about Israel. Anti-Semites describe Israelis using pejorative terms and hate-speech, suggesting, for example, that they are “racists” or “Nazis.”

Natan Sharansky has suggested a “3-D” test for differentiating legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism. The first “D” is the test of whether Israel or its leaders are being demonized or their actions blown out of proportion. Equating Israel with Nazi Germany is one example of demonization. The second “D” is the test of double standards. An example is when Israel is singled out for condemnation at the United Nations for perceived human rights abuses while nations that violate human rights on a massive scale, such as Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, are not even mentioned. The third “D” is the test of delegitimization. Questioning Israel’s legitimacy, that is, its right to exist is always anti-Semitic (Natan Sharansky, “Antisemitism in 3-D”, Forward, January 21, 2005).

No campaign exists to prevent people from expressing negative opinions about Israeli policy. In fact, the most vociferous critics of Israel are Israelis themselves who use their freedom of speech to express their concerns every day. A glance at any Israeli newspaper will reveal a surfeit of articles questioning particular government policies. Anti-Semites, however, do not share Israelis’ interest in improving the society; their goal is to delegitimize the state in the short-run, and destroy it in the long-run. There is nothing Israel could do to satisfy these critics.

ISRAEL’S NEXT TOP MODEL (you can’t get more multi racial, more multi color than that)

2006 marked the second season of the reality tv competition searching for Israel’s Next Top Model (the show is a knock off of Tyra Bank’s program “America’s Next Top Model”). The three finalists are depicted in this picture. All are Israeli young women. Two are Jewish, one is Muslim. Kristine, the blond model was born in Russia. Mimi, the black model was born in Ethiopia. Her family belongs to the group of courageous Ethiopian Jews who braved starvation, exposure to the elements, wild animals, brutal marauders and exhaustion to escape Ethiopia by WALKING to the Holy Land. Niral, the brown haired beauty on the left, was born in Israel to a Muslim-Israeli family. Niral won the competition and is now , Israel’s Next Top Model.

_______

First Muslim Cabinet minister for Israel, (Raleb Majadele – Arab Muslim minster in Israeli democratic government) Israel was on the verge of installing the first Muslim Cabinet minister in … But the country has had only one Arab Cabinet minister before: Salah Tarif. http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~3/83409946/index.html